Eastern Wood Frog

Rana sylvatica Le Conte

Colour.—Variable, changing from chocolate-brown to fawn-colour, through varying shades of reddish, yellowish, or greyish brown. Lower back and sides may or may not be irregularly spotted, legs may or may not be barred, with dark colour. There is a black or dark-brown patch of colour in the region of the ear. The dark colour may extend in a band (widening behind) from the snout to the shoulder. A light line extends along the jaw from snout to shoulder. The lateral folds may be light yellowish brown. Underparts yellowish or greenish white, sometimes mottled with dusky anteriorly.

Measurements.—Size relatively small, i.e. male 2 inches, female 3 inches. Ear smaller than the eye. (Fig. 245.) Distance between nostrils equal to the width of the head between the eyes. The legs are extremely long, measuring twice the length of head and body together. (Fig. 242.) The length of the leg to the heel considerably exceeds the total length of head and body. The lower leg (tibia) is more than half the combined lengths of head and body.

Structure.—The body is flat. (Fig. 243.) The head is broad and pointed. The skin is relatively smooth and moist. There are a few tubercles on the lower sides and posterior back. (Fig. 250.) The lateral folds are conspicuous. (Colour Plate XIV.) The foot is light-coloured and delicate. The toes are long and slender. The web is extensive, but it leaves free the last two joints of the fourth toe and the last joint of each of the other four toes.

Range.—Rana sylvatica is found in damp woods throughout the northeastern United States; it is not found west of the Great Plains, south of South Carolina, or north of Quebec, Canada.

Most of our frogs invite us to ponds or brooks, or river margins, if we would find them, but the Wood Frog and Colour Plate XIV) takes us to the shade of the pines and oaks of the forest.

It is June. The chestnut trees are waving fragrant plumed tops. The red-eyed vireo, now in one tree, and then in another, is talking incessantly of the beauty of things. A slight wind sways the curving branches of low-growing hickories and chestnuts, their leaf shadows falling cool on the moss and brown leaves below. As we walk up the wooded hillside, getting our garments covered with bedstraw burrs, tiny frogs jump out from our feet, in front, at the right, and at the left. But stand still, and you will see only the brown pine-needles and oak leaves, the erect, fragrant pyrola, and the nodding waxy pipsissewa. The frogs are small, and their colours are so thoroughly matched with those of their surroundings as to make them almost invisible. Step forward ever so little, and bend down to pick a spray of red-tipped pyrola flowers, and a frog will leap almost from under your very hand. It is hard work to catch a half-dozen of them, and good fun to make them swim in the near brook. The work comes first, for the ground is uneven and these atoms of frogs leap enormous distances, never twice in the same direction. Besides, they are not easy to keep after they are caught. They are strong and slippery, and they are so delicate that they must be handled with great carefulness. The fun comes when we release them in the water. They are powerful swimmers, and kick out their hind legs vigorously. However, they make for the nearest miniature island, or for the shore, where they are hidden, and we have at once lost all but one or two. It makes us very active indeed to keep trace of these; before we are aware of it, they, also, are gone.

However, we saw them long enough to realise that they were slender and delicate in shape, grey or brown in colour, and that they had black or dark-brown cheek-patches. They are one-year-old Wood Frogs. Wood Frogs are more truly land frogs than are any of the others among our North American frogs.

In addition to these very small frogs, we are certain to come upon larger Wood Frogs, two years old or more. We are most likely to find them along wood paths or at the edge of the brook.

Land-life, and the broader experience resulting therefrom, seems to have produced a somewhat higher development in this frog. It not only looks much more intelligent, but it is certainly less unintelligent in some of the ways of its living, than other frogs. It jumps farther than most of the others, and has the habit of turning during the movement, so that when it strikes the ground it is facing the enemy. It is much more alert in getting food, resembling the toad in this respect. It sees the moving insect at a distance of several feet, stealthily walks or creeps toward it, and perhaps follows it some distance, before making the capture. Besides, the Wood Frog is our most silent frog, in this, again, resembling the toad. It is only at the early breeding-season that its hoarse croaking can be heard. When a creature lives on the ground, and has no manner of defense, and none of escape, except jumping (and that always on the ground), silence must be a great protection.